Studies of Molten Mixtures of Halides and Chalcogenides

Abstract

Sulfide ores are amongst the major nonferrous base metal minerals mined today, and have been for many decades. Many sulfides are semiconductors in the solid state and considerable electrochemical investigation of this property at room temperature has been described.1 Despite the fact that many of the industrially important reactions of extractive metallurgy concern sulfide minerals and involve high-temperature chemistry (400–1200°C) in the molten state, few overviews are available concerning the chemistry of molten chalcogenides when mixed with other melts, as is usually the case industrially.